"Court rules against Peltier in documents case": The Associated Press has a report that begins, "Imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier has lost another round in court in his effort to compel the FBI to disclose about 10,500 pages of documents about his case."

"Kennedy's Skepticism and Scalia's Odd Comment at Supreme Court Today": Tony Mauro has this post at "The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times."Posted at 03:21 PM by Howard Bashman"Judge Who Signed Interrogation Memos Invited to Testify": The Washington Post has a news update that begins, "Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy today invited federal judge Jay S. Bybee to testify about his role in preparing two Justice Department memos that allowed interrogators to engage in simulated drowning and slamming prisoners against a wall."

"Voting Rights Act section that singles out South may be abolished; Supreme Court justices appear to be ready to strike down Section 5, which requires special election supervision for many Southern states": David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this news update.Posted at 03:10 PM by Howard BashmanAccess online the transcript of today's U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Northwest Austin Municipal Util. Dist. No. One v. Holder, No. 08-322: The Court has posted the transcript at this link.Posted at 03:02 PM by Howard Bashman"[I]t may be that Russian speakers are a greater percentage of the vodka-consuming public": Must a vodka be from Moscow, Russia in order to be sold under the name "Moskovskaya" in the United States? A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confronts that question in a ruling issued today.

"Justices Consider Overturning Voting Rights Act Provision": C-SPAN has made the audio of today's U.S. Supreme Court oral argument available online, on-demand at this link.Posted at 02:18 PM by Howard Bashman"Voting rights case at high court Wednesday": Mark Sherman of The Associated Press has an updated report that begins, "The Supreme Court's conservative justices led a sustained attack Wednesday on a key element of the Voting Rights Act that calls for states with a history of discrimination to get advance approval of changes in the way elections are conducted."

1. In Kansas v. Ventris, No. 07-1356, Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court, in which the Chief Justice and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer, and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. joined. Justice John Paul Stevens issued a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

2. And in Dean v. United States, No. 08-5274, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Alito joined. Justices Stevens and Breyer each issued dissenting opinions. You can access the ruling at this link and the oral argument transcript at this link.

"Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos": Today in The New York Times, Neil A. Lewis has an article that begins, "Judge Jay S. Bybee broke his silence on Tuesday and defended the conclusions of legal memorandums he had signed as a Bush administration lawyer that allowed use of several coercive interrogation practices on suspected terrorists."